Tag Archives: starvation

Those Divine Weeds

22 Sunday Aug 2021

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, edible flowers, family farm, farm, flowers, food, food production, gardening, gardens, health, health and wellness, homesteading, horticulture, lifestyle, organic medicine, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, vegetables, world hunger

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Still exploring, still living that awesome adventure, still looking forward to the next great day.  Still working those muscles, still struggling with pain.  Not so!  Your diet could save you.

On and on the canoe is paddled, on and on, those muscles work.  Through rapids, portages, endless days on the water, trap the fur, bring it home, make a fortune for that clever, illustrious businessman.  Be the vehicle to their desires.  Work your body, your mind, your spirit to the bone.  Leave your loved ones, travel with courage, bring home that cherished dime.

The difficult life of the courier de bois, the homesteaders that followed them and the settling of Canada.  The price that was paid in life and livelihood, as the courageous Canadians make their way into the great wild.  Survive you must.

The land takes it’s toil and exhausts us.  The strain and stress of this life is full of great challenges.  There are dreams of gold but hardship is plenty.  Tell us your secrets.  How did you survive?

In the great wild, there is plenty, if you know what to look for.  There was game to catch, fish in the streams, fruit, berries and edible plants along the way.  Some of this is medicinal and works to cure that obvious.  Vitamin C for scurvy, vitamin A for your eyes.  The long days of sunshine gleaming off the water, the eyesore from reflections from the water without sunglasses, the sunburn, the pain of it.

Somewhere in the wilds of Canada is medicine for all of this.  Salves, ointments, tinctures, treatments for cuts, bruises, scrapes and burns.  Somewhere there are treatments for pain, vision loss, inflamed joints, sore muscles, pulls and sprains.  Somewhere there is treatment for disease and mental impairment.  Our healing is abundant and our forefathers prove it.  Somewhere in the great wild nutrition is abundant and the natural world gives us relief from aches and pain, from disease and keeps us well.  Somewhere in the wild, there is food that will save us, if you know what to look for.

Lambs Quarters:Why was Lamb’s quarters used as an herbal remedy?The plant was used traditionally as an herbal remedy for eczema, rheumatic pains, gout, colic, insect stings and bites. Also a decoction made from the herb was used to treat tooth decay. The sap extracted from the plant stems was used to reduce freckles and treat sunburns.

Lamb’s Quarters Uses in Cooking and Benefits

Why is it important to eat lambsquarter leaves? Lambsquarter is an important source of food that can be considered a key staple, while at the same time it is also an extremely valuable medicine. When the leaves are chewed into a green paste and applied to the body, it makes a great poultice for insect bites, minor scrapes, injuries, inflammation, and sunburn.

  • https://www.joyfulbelly.com/Ayurveda/ingredient/Lambs-Quarters/267Lamb’s quarters contains more protein, calcium, and vitamins B1 and B2 than cabbage or spinach, making it a wild edible fit for Pop-Eye, our favorite green vegetable hero. It is also rich in iron, phosphorus, and vitamins B1, B2, C, and A. Lamb’s Quarters warms your mouth, is slightly salty, sour, and mildly spicy.
  • Lambs Quarter – Wild & Edible www.thegypsythread.orghttps://www.thegypsythread.org/lambs-quarter-wild-edible2021-07-27 · Internal uses range from treating diarrhea, relieving stomach aches, and for scurvy (due to the high Vitamin C content.) Lamb’s quarter tea is also known for decreasing inflammation and increasing circulation. Lamb’s quarter poultices are said to relieve itching, swelling, and relieve burn pain.
  • Yarrow
  • In short, Yarrow has the following medicinal uses:
    • wound treatment
    • stops bleeding
    • digestive herb
    • diuretic
    • anti-inflammatory
    • anti-spasmodic
    • anti-catarrhal (removes excess mucous from the body)
    • diaphoretic (reduces fever)
    • lowers blood pressure
    • stimulates blood flow in the pelvic area (especially the uterus)
    • antimicrobial
    • used for hemorrhage
    • used for treatment in pneumonia
    • used for treatment in rheumatic pain
  • Purple Aster
    • Principally used in the cure of rheumatism in the form of infusion or tincture; recommended, however, in hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, spasms, irregular menstruation, etc., internally; and used both externally and internally in many cutaneous diseases, the eruption occasioned by the poison rhus, and in the bites of venomous snakes.Wild Asters medicinal uses | V I FarmsAre there any medicinal uses for wild asters?Wild Asters medicinal uses. The warm infusion may be used freely in colds, rheumatism, nervous debility, headache, pains in the stomach, dizziness, and menstrual irregularities. This, together with A. cordifolius, has been compared in value with valerian. Aster aestivus …is recommended as an antispasmodic and alterative.
  • 2020-08-30 · The flowers and leaves can be eaten fresh or dried when eating aster plants. The Native American people harvested wild aster for a multitude of uses. The roots of the plant were used in soups and young leaves were cooked lightly and used as greens. 

  • Daisies

The Medicinal Herb Daisy The herb may be used for loss of appetite as it has stimulating effect on the digestion system and it has been used as a treatment for many ailments of the digestive tract, such as gastritis, diarrhea, liver and gallbladder complaints and mild constipation.

Wild daisy is a plant. The parts that grow above the ground are used to make medicinal tea. People take wild daisy tea for coughs, bronchitis, disorders of the liver and kidneys, and swelling ( inflammation ). They also use it as a drying agent (astringent) and as a ” blood purifier.”

The young flower heads or buds can be added to salads, soups or sandwiches; or the flower heads used to decorate salad dishes. The leaves can be eaten raw despite their bitter aftertaste, but are better mixed in salads or cooked and might be used as a potherb. The buds can be preserved in vinegar and used in cooking as a substitute for capers.

Nutritional profile

It is both an anti-inflammatory herb and a vulnerary (improves circulation) herb. Drink daisy tea for the plant’s health-giving and restorative properties. A modern study of wild edibles used during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–95) showed that daisies contain 34 mg of vitamin C per 100 g.

Common Thistle

The roots have been used as a poultice and a decoction of the plant used as a poultice on sore jaws. A hot infusion of the whole plant has been used as a herbal steam for treating rheumatic joints. A decoction of the whole plant has been used both internally and externally to treat bleeding piles.

Save yourself, with the delicious, nutritious weeds of the wild!  Our great ancestors had nothing else to eat.  The knowledge  of the food value and medicinal value of these weeds offered to us by the aboriginal people of Canada, saved us then and could help us now.  Eat, drink and be well.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

August 22, 2021

Losing the Pollinator

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, edible flowers, family farm, famine, farm, flowers, food, food production, gardens, health, homesteading, horticulture, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, Uncategorized, vegetables, world hunger

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Hail Oh Brilliant Ones

The food source is in decline. The world warms itself and global warming presents the hazards of Arctic melting and increased glacial melting. The great glaciers recede and the moraine increases. Rubble and rock to replace glacial icecap that melts and sends torrents of fresh drinking water into our rivers and streams. Drinking water for the nation, rivers and lakes, a necessary life giving force. Pure water, from a source that is vanishing at an increasing rate. Global warming. A hazard to us, as weather patterns change and become more unusual. Increasing storms and rising temperatures and decline.

Over hunting and over fishing are signs that we are not protecting the mighty planet as we should. Over harvesting of natural elements changes the face of the earth forever and is the need really there? Our bees are dying by the millions and our food source will become more and more scarce. Pesticides intended to increase crop yields fail as the pollinators die and with the death of these insects, food production declines and variety decreases. A small necessary insect, with enormous impact on the food chain. Bees alone pollinate so many varieties of food that without them, we have scarcity and loss of production.
The planet groans under the weight of so many humans, as they strive to fill their bellies. Plunder and loss, greed and resentment. How to feed the starving.
An age old question, of need and provide, as governments tackle the same questions that have presented themselves throughout history. How to provide for the hungry. Habitat loss and over farming plunders the earth. Natural forces are lost as bees die at an alarming rate. Plant your seeds, oh dear hearts, tend to your plants, nurture and care. But without the pollinator, your efforts are in vain, as the beautiful flower withers and dies without fruit to bear. Our efforts to feed ourselves diminishes as even the weather becomes unpredictable. A crisis at a momentous level.
Pesticides are becoming so poisonous that they are killing the life force that we need for food production. The bee. With the loss of bees, we loose our food supply and hunger increases. As hunger increases, so does plunder and the great planet and the great wild loose to the ravages of so many hungry people that can’t be fed. The food chain is interrupted and food declines.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-and-extinction-of-the-bees/5375684 the dying bees

Hail, great planet, cries the needs of so many. Replenish our plates and fill our mouths. Give us sustenance and plenty and nourish us. Provide for us, oh great planet, as we demand that only our stomachs be filled.
Another tree is toppled to make room for the farm. Another seed is planted to raise hopes for that poor, undernourished family. More hope for sustenance and perhaps income for a poor starving family. Not so. As bees die by the millions, the hope and dream of prosperity for those willing to try, diminishes and dies with the pollinator. Hail, almighty human. Use your powers wisely. Save us.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
January 21, 2015

Food! Glorious Food!

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, edible flowers, family farm, famine, farm, flowers, food, food production, fruit, gardening, gardens, health, homesteading, horticulture, lifestyle, recipes, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, Uncategorized, vegetables, world hunger

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Good Day, Brave hearts

The plentiful gifts from the planet are oozing with goodness for your health.  Baskets of ripe fruit, fresh, organic produce, berries and vegetables.  The farm.  That country lifestyle of wholesome goodness.  The peace, the quiet, the endless fields of  food.  Take out your recipe books, oh delectable gourmet, this is where your hunger ends and your imagination starts.

The variety of carrots, yellow, purple, orange.  The variety of potatoes, peas, beans and corn.  Grains for baking, soups and bread.  This is your gourmet delight.  The fabulous farm, or even your own slice of garden in your own back yard.  The wholesome goodness of fresh country produce, organically grown.  Your own little world of a vegetable garden, saves dollars at the grocery store, but also has more nutritional value.  Fresh picked tastes better and has a higher nutritional value than produce that has been picked earlier and trucked to stores.

Your larder is overflowing as the berry bushes bow, heavy laden with fruit.  It’s a bumper crop this year, early springtime sunshine and hot, dry weather followed by day after day of rain and  now a non stop supply of early ripening produce.  The canning and processing is in full production and this is early for us.  The summertime fruit cordials are a delicious addition to the pantry.  Pin cherry, black currant, red currant and rhubarb.  The freezer is filling and the bushes are overflowing.   The fruit trees are ripening and the vegetable garden is ready for picking. The great Canadian summer is with us with all of the goodness that if brings.

www/thesustainabilityplanforfood.com

The glorious days of summer!  Dreamy days of endless health.  The wild lands burst with blue bushes of berries, tiny ground growing red and higher crops of ripening purple.  Look up!  Is that berries in those trees?  The birds fill their bellies and the wandering bears lick the bushes clean.  A plentiful crop for the wildlife brings healthy newborns next spring. The forest floor is still a bit dry, but the thundershowers keep blowing in and soon the underbrush will be damp from the persistent rain.  Rain and warmth, sunshine and heat, longer days and warmer nights.  This year has worked it’s magic for us, with our backyard gardens filling our baskets with non stop fruit.  The daily toil, for backyard farmers like us, is the constant delight of filling our bowls with fruit or vegies and trying new recipes. This year it’s fruit cordials, which are an absolute delight.  Elixers and liqueurs, jams and pie.  The fabulous luxury of home grown and homemade.  A superb combination to fill the spare time hours of long summer days.

The wild brings its own delight.  Blueberries for your healthy basket.  Eat and enjoy, this summer won’t last.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

August 15, 2016

Pemican

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, family farm, famine, farm, food, food production, gardening, gardens, homesteading, lifestyle, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, vegetables, world hunger

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Hail Brave hearts.

The season’s change and so do I.  Cast off your winter garment, it is spring.  The receding snows and baking sun, take the blanket of white away, leaving behind the winter’s dead brown world.  A cool, late spring, with slow growth, keeps the winter hanging on.  It’s time for spring, the great wild calls, as the migrating birds arrive and the hibernating animals emerge.  It’s time for spring, call the adventurers as they pull out their bikes for a ride in the woods.  The ski hill closes, the equipment is stored, coats and boots hang in closets.  Birds gather in warm pools, waiting for the ice to melt.  Come on spring, it’s your show now!

Slowly the warming sun, encourages the grass to become green, tiny buds on trees begin to emerge and the promise of a new world becomes real.  Mating pairs can’t wait to start their families and the tiny offspring need to be warm.  Winter has withdrawn reluctantly this year.  An inspection of the garden reveals some winter kill.  Not all of the plants can survive the winter all of the time, but lets wait, it’s still early.  Don’t be discouraged yet.

Rhubarb has popped it’s head up out of the soil.   In a few weeks the harvest will start.  The berry patch is looking good and weeding is on the “to do” list.  Little sparrows look for good nesting sites and the chorus of their song, welcomes spring.  Finally!  The Earth awakens from her slumber and with this, the grey days pass.

“Come out!”  calls the brilliant sunshine. ” Come to play in the warm sunshine!  Come to see the beautiful new world.  Come to investigate the returning wild.  Come out!  Come out!  Don’t stay inside.  You’ll miss this glorious day!”

Spring brings with it a new array of activity.  The garden, with it’s earthly delights, fragrance, bird songs, color, delectable food.  This spells work in the garden, choose your seeds, get ready to plant.  The fruit trees are blooming, food is on its way.

After a long winter of rations, eating last years harvest, the fresh rhubarb looks so good.  A few more weeks and this can be eaten.  Perhaps a new recipe this year.  The dandelions are starting to flower and the fresh new shoots are a perfect salad.  I won’t weed these this year.  Instead, I’ll let the flowers grow and harvest them for my dinner.  Bread and muffins, salad and tea and survival.  This is the gift of the harvest, straight from the great planet.   Eat and enjoy, for this is sustenance and we gather it.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/68395/pemican.html  Pemican

In years gone by, when the country was new, survival was the key to colonialism.  Like hibernating wildlife, overwintering and surviving in the great white north, was the most imperative topic of the day.  How do we survive?  Adaptation and skills, training and education.  As humans, we can’t curl up in a warm, winters den and sleep the cold away.  Preparation and planning,  storage, cut wood.  A humble cabin, an oasis in the wilderness.  Warm, small,dry.  It’s yours!

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

May 13, 2018

Aside

The Homestead Part One

23 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by in agriculture, alternative lifestyles, animal husbandry, family farm, famine, farm animals, food, food production, fruit, gardening, gardens, health, homesteading, starvation, the sustainability plan for food, vegetables, world hunger

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Imagine the homestead to be a self sustaining property.  The house and grounds are all that the family need to survive.  On a lot size of 100’x100′ there is room for various plantings and for livestock as well.  This particular  homesteader divided her lot in half.  50’x100′ was set aside for livestock.  The animals included 6 turkeys, for eggs and meat, 1 goat for milk, cheese and yogurt and one sheep for wool and meat.  Goats produce approximately 3 litres of milk a day, so one goat provides enough milk for this family.  One sheep produces 15 lbs of wool in a year.  This wool yields 7.5 lbs of spun  yarn.  This is enough yarn to knit hats, sweaters, mitts and scarves for this family.
The  other half of the property consists of the house, a shed and the orchard and garden.
In the first year the work is hard.  She has to turn the soil to plant her gardens and this is backbreaking, tiresome work.  She has to haul logs for her fire and keep her animals healthy.  The work is constant, but so is the reward.  There is a daily supply of milk, eggs and meat.   She has to churn butter, cheese and yogurt, but she also has milk for ice cream and when the berries come, this is part of her luxury.
In the first year, the  homesteader planted red and black currants and raspberries.  There are also rhubarb and an apple tree on the property.  This provides enough fruit for her to sustain herself during the winter,although, there was a need to make pemmican, as supplies started to run out.  She has also planted potatoes as a main crop.

As the years go by, the homesteader becomes more affluent.  Life is easier, since her primary needs of shelter, food ,clothing  and warmth are easily met.  There is less toil, so with more leisure, she becomes more adventurous.  she plants two plums, a cherry, a hazelnut, a peach and an apricot tree.  She transplants some of her raspberries to provide a privacy screen and increase her yield.  She plants one more of each of the red and black currant and introduces white currant.  Her berry production is high and her varieties increase with her enthusiasm.   Two elderberry, two gooseberry, two grapes, three kiwi, two black raspberry, three lingon berry, a high bush and a creeping cranberry, plus blueberry.  The exotics add to the wealth of the land, providing greater interest and nutritional value.  The understory of trees is planted with strawberry and herbs.  Oregano, thyme, savory and sage are incorporated into her landscape, for warmth for the trees and additional flavour for her meals.  Lavender, lily of the valley and roses provide scent for perfumes and soap.  There are other flowers and flowering shrubs interspersed into her landscape to attract butterflies and bees.Rhubarb and potato, plus carrots and other vegetables all provide food  for her on this small plot of land.

Her fruit production is now high enough for her to sell some fruit, some pies and some jam.  She can trade or sell meat, wool, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt and spices.  She is now affluent.  If there is hardship or recession, she will still survive.  She can make sweaters, blankets and rugs.  All of her earthly needs are provided for her on this small parcel of land.  The house is large enough to house six people and the production is high enough for them to live solely on the harvest of this land.  The homesteader has achieved self sustainability in one year and affluence in  two to five years.  She now has endless amounts of leisure time to pursue other successes.  The greatest toil will be at harvest time, when all of the fruit is picked, canned, packaged and stored, but this only amounts to a few months of the year.  During the rest of the time, she will weave, knit, sew and indulge herself in her other passions.

She also has enough fruit for luxuries like liqueur and wine.  These are also for sharing, trade and perhaps sale.

She is a horticulturalist, so her interests are in exotics.  She is constantly trying out new plants and collecting seeds. Her other plantings are sunflowers and nastuciums. She plants dill for pickling and corn for flour. There is also hazelnut, potato and bean flour. She also has mint for tea and dries berries for tea. She has a beehive off site for honey. Since there is no sugar, honey is needed. With the abundance of flowering plants and trees and with plantings around the aviary, the bees produce as much as 60 lbs of honey a season. She easily collects the honey without damaging the bees. She is entirely self sufficient. The plumbing is dug deep to ensure no pollution and heat is by solar energy. A wood pile is still needed as a precautionary back up, but is used less often than expected.

The corn cobs will be used to help feed her neighbours pigs, the stalk for brooms, fencing and furniture, the leaves for weaving baskets, mats and seating and the kernels to eat and to make flour.

From the wood ash and animal fat, soap and hand lotion are produced. Lanolin is a by product of washing the sheep wool and is used in lotions.

After only one year, she is self sufficient and after two years, she has plenty. So much so, in fact, that she actually needs less land to survive.

http://www.plantednetwork.ca/page.aspx?pageId=4&gclid=CKTj38_T4rwCFY1cMgodvAoAHg

written by Dr. Louise Hayes